Tucked away in a small alley in Chinatown, you’ll find the hottest new restaurant in San Francisco.

There’s been a lot of buzz around Four Kings which opened a few months ago from Mister Jiu’s alums. It’s a small restaurant hence why reservations are hard to come by but my old coworker was able to get one as she had a hookup. The menu has an abundance of fun takes on Cantonese food with nostalgic flavors.

The complimentary snacks were both delicious and definitely got our appetites ready.

I loved the freshness of the crunchy snap peas with the creamy tofu dressing topped with lemon zest and sesame seeds. Simple but a great vegetable starter.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with these croquettes but these were so good! The exterior was extra crispy and the salted egg inside was super creamy. The flavors were overall mellow with the salted egg and squash but in a good way.

Who doesn’t love some fried juicy chicken with an aioli?! It’s a classic for a reason.

Not sure why they called this fish fragrant eggplant but I’m assuming it’s because it was topped with bonito flakes? The eggplant was tender and caramelized with a sweet soy glaze.

This was basically a chawanmushi, a silky steamed egg custard, and their version had asparagus and some sort of sauce on top.

While I wished there were more scallops, the vermicelli noodles were tossed in a brown butter sauce which was unexpected but very tasty.

Another simple dish but executed nicely with tender squid with scallions and peppers.

This was a fun take on mapo tofu with spaghetti instead of the tofu. While I’ll always like the original dish more, this was still delicious even if it was a little too spicy for my liking.

I liked the pork chop, nicely fried and crunchy, but the tomato egg rice with melted cheese was a little odd. I couldn’t quite get into the flavors.

One of their signatures was the fried squab with a spice blend on the side. My biggest issue was that it was cooked too rare for my liking (squab is usually cooked on the rare side but that was too much).

The last savory dish was the claypot rice with fatty pieces of bacon and Chinese sausage. It’s comforting and a perfect dish to share.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this dessert but it was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The mango pudding wasn’t an actual pudding but more like a thicker jelly like consistency with some sort of milky sauce on the bottom and topped with the freshest strawberry sorbet with an intense strawberry flavor and garnished with shiso leaves. So refreshing.

Of course I had to get the shaved ice with red bean and crème anglaise but the rest of the table wasn’t necessarily thrilled as red bean isn’t a favorite amongst Western palates. I ate all the red bean and underneath the shaved ice was a mixture of red bean with boba! So fun.

Overall the food was scrumptious and service was also great. Be warned that it’s similar to most Chinese restaurants where food comes out as it’s ready so our entire table was full with food which was overwhelming at times. Regardless of that, Four Kings is worth trying and my rating is an 8/10.